Alabama track opens indoor season today

Saturday

Jan 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The University of Alabama track and field team opens the indoor season today by hosting the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener. The meet will be held at the Birmingham CrossPlex, a state-of-the-art indoor track stadium that holds seating for 4,000 fans, a 200-meter hydraulically banked Mondo Super X track, eight-lane sprint track and double runways and rings for all field events.

From combined reports

TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama track and field team opens the indoor season today by hosting the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener. The meet will be held at the Birmingham CrossPlex, a state-of-the-art indoor track stadium that holds seating for 4,000 fans, a 200-meter hydraulically banked Mondo Super X track, eight-lane sprint track and double runways and rings for all field events.

“We’re excited to start our second season, and we’re very optimistic heading into it,” coach Dan Waters said. “We have a lot of new faces, talented athletes that we are anxious to see in competition.”

Alabama is anxious to open the season after welcoming a highly regarded recruiting class. The Crimson Tide’s men’s signees were ranked the nation’s third-best recruiting class by Track & Field News magazine, and the women’s class was also well-regarded.

Georgia Tech, Hinds Community College, Samford, South Florida, Southern Mississippi and Tulane (women’s team only) will also take to the track.

“This will be a significant meet nationally and will have a very strong competitive field,” Waters said. “It will give us an excellent level of competition to begin the season.”

The first field event begins at 11 a.m. with the women’s weight throw, followed by the men’s pole vault at 11:30 a.m. Action on the track begins at 11:30 a.m. with the 60-meter preliminaries. Events are scheduled to run until 6:40 p.m.